Iceflame
by Silver Vixen
Summary: Kagome would push herself to the edge to prove Inu-Yasha wrong but does he want her too?


Sadly. Inu-Yasha doesn't belong to me so of course you can asume neither does Kagome.   
  
  
Iceflame  
  
  
It wasnÕt like Kagome hadnÕt ever trekked through the snow before. It was just that she hadnÕt ever trekked through a brutal snow-storm with a hell-bent-on-finding-a-shard half-dog demon. The walk had started with an argument of large proportions which involved something along the lines of...  
  
Kagome: Two timing bastard!  
  
Inu-Yasha: Weakling of a human!  
  
Kagome: SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT!!!  
  
Inu-Yasha: Ouch! You f&^*#n bitch!  
  
Kagome cringed at the memory but soon banished that as the cringing came to close to giving into the shivers that lay beneath the surface of her endurance. She stared with determination at the back of the red robed demon in front of her as she clutched her jacket around her. One more step, one more breath of ice cold air, one more foot was the mantra that echoed in her mind as she pushed to follow in his footsteps.  
  
One more...  
  
One more...  
  
Just one more...  
  
*  
  
Inu-yasha was mad. Not just a little mad but incredibly pissed. It wasnÕt the fight he had with Kagome, it was the struggle going on behind him. He couldnÕt hear what she was saying in the fierce wind but he knew from the times he had snuck a look that she was mumbling to herself. She was pushing herself farther then she probably should just to prove him wrong.  
  
He hated himself. Damn it! He just couldnÕt help it. She crawled under his skin and struck heart and bone with her stupid words. He hated that word ÒbastardÓ. When she had slapped that name upon him he had felt a familiar pain he thought he had banished return with frightening clarity. He hated that word.  
  
But it wasnÕt that he blamed her. Inu-yasha knew that if he was her, he would keep walking until he dropped dead.  
  
Dead.  
  
Inu-yashaÕs ears pricked up in sudden painful thought that interrupted the fall of thick empty white snowflakes.  
  
Would she really push herself that far? Until the ultimate point?  
  
It sickly fascinated him for some reason. Would a small, fragile human push herself to the brink of life because a bastard of a demon had challenged her?  
  
The answer was all too clear in this situation.  
  
Inu-Yasha stopped and watched as her huddled figure neared him, a dark spot in the snowstorm. But she walked on by, mumbling, ÒKeep going, one more step, one more step, one more step...keep going...Ó in the breathless voice of a dying flame. Her eyes were vacant, not seeing Inu-yasha watched her in surprise.   
  
Inu-Yasha quickly skipped across the snow until he was standing in front of her path, a roadblock she merely avoided with a stare of emptiness.  
  
His heart fell. She was only walking with the force she was thinking, the will to carry on. Break her reverie and she would crumble, let her continue and watch her fall over dead when her mind broke.  
  
Inu-yasha chose.  
  
*  
  
Kagome had ceased to see what was in front of her a long time ago. She had ceased to feel the cramped icicle fingers that grasped her coat buttons or the lovingly brush of the icy cold death of the snowflakes. The one scrap of life that was letting her legs drag forward through the drifts was her pride, burning weakly in her heart.   
  
*  
  
Inu-Yasha scooped up the frozen pale form of Kagome into his arms. As he did he could feel the harsh tremor of her body next to his. Her head flopped over his arm with her eyes wide open into the snow filled sky.  
  
ÒKagome!Ó he shouted at her, shaking the girl.   
  
Her eyes fluttered and he heard a long breath rattle in her lungs. Her mouth closed and opened in a pitiful mew of pain as he shook her again. Her hands tried to clench his robe with no avail, her fingers were so frozen that she couldnÕt move them.  
  
ÒKagome...just keep up your pride, girl...damn it...Ó he breathed into her hair as he foraged ahead, his robe blood against the snow background, ÒDonÕt fall asleep. DO YOU HEAR ME!?Ó   
  
Ò...inu...cc...old...Ó she murmured painfully his his chest. Her eyelids fluttered in anticipation of sleep.  
  
Inu-yasha pinched her arm with his free hand, ÒDonÕt you dare sleep! Stay awake, Kagome! Do you understand!? STAY AWAKE!Ó   
  
She mewed from his constant twisting of her skin but stayed on the brink of consciousness as ordered. Inu-yasha strode forward , eyes sweeping the small range of vision the snow allowed for a place to rest and warm her dying body.  
  
*  
  
Inu-yasha finally found a outcropping that revealed a natural cave, hidden in the shadows. He crawled inside the small opening which widened into a cave that was large enough to stand in, dragging the limp form of Kagome behind him. The cave was obviously a well used and once fairly well cared for travelerÕs cave. A remnants of previous occupants were scattered across the cave floor in disarray. For once Inu-Yasha hated bearing an animalÕs name. Wild animals had torn up most of the supplies some kind travelers had thought to leave behind.   
  
He lay Kagome down on the floor gently. She mumbled and reached back for him, her eyes opening and looking around in confusion. He bent towards her as he reached for her arms and rubbed them hard on the undersides, trying to bring heat to her cold body.  
  
ÒKagome?Ó he said forcefully, looking directly into her eyes with his orange ones, flashing emotions he could not have known showed, ÒCan you feel my fingers?Ó   
  
Ònoo...Ó she mumbled, shutting her eyes again. Inu-yasha saw her body relax into a familiar sleep mode.   
  
He slapped her across the face just hard enough to jolt her awake. ÒStay awake, damn it! You sleep and you die!Ó he screamed at her, his ears flickering back and forth in fear.  
  
She mumbled something and shivered hard, her blue lips and fingers shaking with energy she didnÕt have. ÒPlease let me sleep...Ó she moaned, twisting away from him.  
  
He looked at her, writhing in his grip, his fingers clenching her cold, fragile arms. He knew what he had to do but was dreading it. However his common sense got the better of him and forced his fingers to quickly undo her soaked coat.   
  
He quickly undressed her, trying not to look at anything as he was forced to claw open her soaked bra and underwear. She shivered uncontrollably and moaned, eyes closed. He hugged her pale body close to his as he loosened the robes enough to tuck her inside, her head resting against his shoulder, just peeking out of the top of his robe.   
  
Inu-yasha brushed his hair over one shoulder and stuffed it inside his robe as well, the wet side against his chest and the dry underside against her shivering body. Please donÕt die, Kagome. Please, whoever there is up there, save her. IÕll be nice to old ladies, IÕll never be mean to her again. Please...  
  
Carrying her weight with one arm underneath the bundle of her in his robes, he scooted over to the broken basket of things. He looked in disgust at the broken pots and torn blankets that littered the area. He found one blanket and a box with supplies for fire making intact, along with a few small bowls he piled with snow from the opening to melt.   
  
He looked at the single blanket and then at the shivering creature laying in his robes, thinking a thought too close to what Miruko thought day to day to be good. Should I risk her wrath?, he thought for a moment before realizing, If I donÕt, she may never rise to seek vengeance on me or anyone...and the very thought scared him into doing what he thought of.  
  
ÒWonÕt help if I get sick too anywayÓ, he mumbled, pulling off his robes while Kagome clung to him as the cold air swept across her exposed back. He could feel her deathly cold skin against his and her shivers run through his body. He turned her around and wrapped his arms under her armpits and across the top of her breasts, ignoring the mini Miruko in his head. Untangling one hand, he wrapped them in the blanket, a safe warm oven between them. He rubbed her arms with his hands until they felt warmer then moved his hands down to rub her legs.   
  
ItÕs actually a little amusing, he thought, in the summer IÕm not allowed to even sit by her because I Òradiate heat like the sunÓ and here in the winter IÕm lying naked next to her trying to use some of my heat to keep her alive...  
  
After a while, Kagome moaned in the pain Inu-yasha knew was sparking up as she could start to feel her legs again, Òhurts...yasha...please stop...Ó  
  
ÒI know, Kagome, but I have to get you warm.Ó he said softly into her ear, rubbing a bit softer as he moved his hands back to her arms and shoulders. She had stopped shivering for the most part but he knew that they...what was the phrase she had used once? Oh yeah, out of the ballpark. No, they werenÕt out of the ballpark yet.  
  
She struggled against him and he held her tighter to him, pressing her back against his warm chest. She whimpered so tiredly Inu-Yasha felt a surge of fear again, Òwanna turn around...Ó  
  
ÒOh, sorry.Ó He helped her turn over towards him and was surprised as her cold hands reached up and held onto his cheeks as his arms snaked around her once again. Her dark eyes were much more focused then they had been 30 minutes ago. A good sign, he thought, she could probably sleep now since the fear of her dying had stopped pounding his senses with foreboding. Her deep eyes were still locked on his eyes like catÕs on their prey. He hadnÕt ever really looked into them before.   
  
Her fingers began shaking against his cheeks like rain drops splattering. Inu-Yasha promptly removed his hands from where he was still rubbing heat back into her shoulders and took her fingers in his. He raised them to his mouth and blew as he rubbed them hard to bring back heat into the icicles in his hands. He could feel the cramps in them tighten then loosen as Kagome murmured something softly into his silver hair.   
  
ÒInu-Yasha?Ó she mumbled, her eyes flickering in sleep, dark lashes lying against her pale skin. Inu-Yasha dropped her hands as she started to pull them towards her like a pair of pale dove wings. She snuggled closer to him until her head was laying in the crevice his shoulder and arm had created, one arm tucked between her breasts, the other laying on his chest and stroking a lock of his silver hair.  
  
He breathed deeply in, inhaling the cold snow scent that filled the room, ÒHum?Ó  
  
Kagome smiled sleepily, stroking his hair gently, ÒItÕs not like silk. ItÕs just like any other hair IÕve ever felt except itÕs...beautiful...and itÕs yours...Ó  
  
He just looked at her in complete and utter surprise as her eyes fluttered shut and her mouth opened to inhale and exhale in a familiar rhythm that drummed against his chest in the form of her breasts. He tried not to think about that. He tried not to think about her at all.  
  
But he couldnÕt stop his fingers from stroking in pale underbelly of her neck. He could see the pale veins underneath her skin as they pulsed to the rhythm of her life. So fragile, so pale, so....human. He lay a hand against her neck, feeling her heartbeat throb beneath his hand.   
  
His fingers traced her face, the ski slope of her nose, the round apples of her cheeks, the curve of her ears and the jingle of her earrings from ears newly pierced. She was a porcelain doll, a fragile glass doll. How did humans survive?  
  
Inu-Yasha looked at his hand against her skin. His claws could bite into her skin like knives, drawing blood and ripping her life if he so felt the need.   
  
What am I thinking!?, he thought suddenly and snatched his hand away from her face. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her tighter to his chest. He could see a million tiny little scars covering her shoulders, badges of courage she had earned during their ÒadventuresÓ.  
  
Why does she stay here? She gets hurt, she get beat upon, Miruko tries to feel her up, and IÕm...well IÕm just a cruel half-dog bastard, Inu-yasha thought, his chin resting against the top of her head. Her hair smelled good and was smooth, if still damp, against his skin.   
  
ÒKagome...Ó he breathed quietly into the darkness of the cave, Òwhy do you torture me so?Ó The wind merely whipped around the entrance of the cave, making an eery answer of ÒWhooooo.....Ó.  
  
Is this the way my father felt when he was near my mother? Like everything was just so normal and good and fine when she near?, he thought suddenly as his eyes started to feel heavy with the promise of sleep, Did he feel safe? Why do I care! SheÕs human and I canÕt!   
  
ÒI canÕt do this again...please, somebody help me.Ó he moaned quietly into her beautiful black hair, ÒGet me out of love...Ó  
  
With troubled heart the half-yukai fell asleep next to the one person he loved as a storm raged outside to match the one inside his head.  
  
*  
  
This was an interesting experience. If you are an Inu-Yasha fanfiction nut, youÕve probably read ÒThe Blanket ScenarioÓ stories. If you havenÕt check it out!   
  
http://home.uleth.ca/~pickcd00/tbs.htm   
  
Mine isnÕt there. I havenÕt sent it in yet so it might appear sometime.   
  
I havenÕt written fanfiction in a really long while. Tell me what you think. I felt like it really dragged in parts but was spectacular in others but IÕm the writer and I canÕt read my own fiction and see if itÕs good or not. I did get the whole perspective of Inu-Yasha I wanted. I didnÕt want KagomeÕs point of view in there a lot because her talking about love just doesnÕt have the same...well...truthfullness and innocence as Inu-Yasha talking about love does. I donÕt know...IÕm kinda rambling...argh...  
  
-Kit 


End file.
